Mr. ADAM’s SPEECH
AT THE
Bar of the Houfe of Commons,
21 st JUNE, 1803,
against ttie ^ecotto ReatJtng of
THE ST. JAMES’s POOR BILL.
WITH
AN APPENDIX.
THE THIRD EDITION.
as
ftOttDOttt
. *
PRINTED BY W. SMITH AND SON,
King Street , Seven Dials ,
For JOHN HATCHARD, BOOKSELLER TO HER MAJESTY, 190, PICCADILLY.
\
1804.
Price- One Shilling.
\ \
MR. ADAM’S SPEECH.
Mr. SPEAKER,
I Attend here as Counsel against a Bill, entitled.
An Act for erecting a new Workhouse in the Parish of St. James within
the Liberty of Westminster, and for amending and enlarging the Powers
3r so much of an Act passed in the second Year of the Reign of his
Diesent Majesty as relates to the Poor of the said Parish.
The Petition presented against this Bill states, “ That the Parish is
.c a rf>ady burthened with a very heavy debt for purchasing and inclosing
c a Bmial Ground, and for building a Chapel and Houses thereon.
v a further very heavy expence is now incurring in repairing and
c beautifying the Parish Church and in ornamenting the same with new
( pe^s. . That a very great proportion of the Inhabitants are‘ of the
c labouring and manufacturing class and other persons in very moderate
( clrcumstances, who are scarcely able to pay the heavy rates and taxes
c are aheady subject to. That the sum necessary for the purchase
e .. . Pf°pses and Ground, and the money proposed to be laid out in.
, building, will be very great, and the Interest thereof will be a grievous
( bur then upon the Inhabitants of the said Parish at a time when the
( Public Services of the Country call for so considerable an addition to
g tae public burthens, which, together with the high price of all the
c uecessaiies of life, will probably deprive many of the means of support
( without parochial relief. Lhat the present Poor House, though old
( and out of repair, and in some respects inconvenient, might be kept
( aP *01 many years at a moderate expence. That the present system of
c ™ oikhouses in particular and of the Poor Laws in general tend to the
f great discouragement of Industry and Economy in the People, and the
building of commodious pleasant and extensive Buildings for their
peisonal ease and accommodation must tend to the further encrease of
r abuse under that system/'
The House will perceive, from what I have taken the liberty of
eadino;, that the complaint against this Bill rests upon two grounds*
rst of all the Principle of the Bill as it relates to the Parish in question is
bjected to, and secondly the general Principle of Bills of this sort, which
3rm part of that system which has existed from the conclusion of the
sign of Elizabeth down to the present time, under the name of the Poor
^aws. I he latter part of the Petition calls my attention most particularly
3 consider that system, and I shall have occasion to refer to the different
*aws which have passed and are in force respecting the Poor. But before
do so, I will take the liberty of discharging my mind of that part of the
ubject which relates to the particular circumstance of the Parish of
4
Mr. ADAM’s SPEEClf.
Cc
ff
CC
cc
CC
Cc
cc
cc
i , ■ puivua.Mii^ dUUlllUIlUJL
£iound m the centre of the metropolis at a considerable expence
amounting not to less than 5000/. or 0000/. and to raise a Palace on that
ground.
Ma. ABAM’s SPEECH.
ound, the expence of which is to amount to 40,000/. ; so that besides
e sum of 15,500/. the sum of 5000/. which constitute a present debt ol
p wards of 20,000/.. all which is a burthen on the .annual income of the
arish : beside this an additional debt is to be created, ot 46,000/. principal
oney before one mouth is led;; before one poor individual receives a rag’
* cl oaths ; before anv one thing is done that can tend at all to the com¬
et of the indigent individuals of the Parish; and this is to be done
ithout relation to the state ot the times,,. to the existing burthens on the
arish, or anv attention to sound principles ot political economy in.
re management of the poor; principles which 1 satisfy myself I shall be
he to enforce to the conviction of this blouse. But, Sir, this is not all.
am instructed to state, that the sum of money annually expended upon -
le poor amounts to. the sum of 21,000/. ; that this large sum is expended
pon 600 or 700 persons of all descriptions, and makes a sum of from
0l. to 40/. a year for the support of every pauper at or near the rate
f 3s. a day — a larger sum than is gained by the industrious labourer,
hell is the fund required for the purpose of enabling them to establish
lis Workhouse in addition to the expence already incurred, and in addition
p the annual expeiice of maintenance. I will venture to prophecy, there-
Die not with reference to this particular case, but directing my atten-
ion to the general principles which govern this great and important
ubject, that if this mode is adopted, they will find the cure to be infinitely
rorse than the disease; that all the circumstances which attend the
dflieting situation of the poor will be aggravated, and that which is
meant to promote industry will have directly the contrary effect.
This brings me to the concluding part of the Petition, and the most
mportant part of it, that which relates to the general question of ex¬
pediency. Upon this part of the case I trust I have had sufficient
opportunity to look into the subject not only upon this, but on other
occasions, to be able to concentrate and to enforce all the doctrines
lecessarv for the consideration of this great question — The most interest-
fig that" can occur in the intercourse of human nature, namely, the mode
py which the poorer classes of the community, when their daily labour
foes not find them subsistence, are to be supported. It is not only
i question of the greatest magnitude and interest, but it embraces, the
nost profound principles in the whole circle of the great and im¬
portant science ot political economy, Ihis question very lately claim-
id the particular attention of the Public, when the calamity, arising
bom the high price of provisions existed, and encreased the diffi¬
culties under which the poor laboured. It is a comfortable circum¬
stance that at the moment I am now speaking, whatever other serious
considerations there may be in the state of public affairs, there never was
\ more proper time and opportunity to deliberate on the mode of treating
the poor. ft. ought never to be done on a pressing occasion ot scarcity,
ait a time when dearth stares you in the face, but in a time of plenty and
cheapness.
It has happened most unfortunately for the due and deliberate
consideration ot this Subject, that from the destruction ot the Monastries
at the Reformation, down to the present time, all the particular periods at
which any measure has been brought forward for the regulation of this im¬
port an tv
0
6
Mr. ADAM’s SPEECH.
of ‘mesif vv fthng’ and, 1 am ready t0 admit’ difficuIt question, were times
inve that 1 should travel further back
; e hls,.t0,y of those Laws, in order to illucidate the present nuestion
inf t'Pc‘. ectl-v sufficient, and perfectly adequate, to all^the purposes of
ZT1 The* TPeT ‘'’I9 ^ t0 st°P at 'he Statute ofPforPt;.third
bad for 'ts obiect the ‘ S“ >ou are acquainted with. It
relief of he to’ *e raising a sum of money for the purpose of the
poisoned h k and °ne 0t the features of ‘hat statute, which has
the whole system from that time down to the present is
that there was no limitation put to the extent of the sum to1 be raised
Jccas oTand tfPC • UP°n W3S thouSht to be the exigency of the
Poor fh l eX'genCy ,WaS t0,bc JudSed °f by the Overseers of the
. fhdt cncumstance shews that the original laws with regard to
,], , t 04e™"e, “ mi possible to conceive that person,
Ihoddbe Te°sl d ^ s"Pf «te»da"« of this Charitv, and that they
a be the sole judges of the amount of the necessity of raisin o- the
Rate Persons of a rank and condition, incapable of juting of the
sme they would occasion by the money they might think it necessary to
tospendu'whh^l-ff10' with frugality, but naturally inclined
to spend it with profusion, so that the Poor Laws exhibit in their verv
origin a principle directly in hostility to that which is supposed to retr/
ate the constitution of this country ; and which is understood to S
ie community from partial, unjust, and rigorous imposition Thereon 1
stitutioiial principle to which I allude is, that Taxes should be'imposed by
t lose w ho must greatly share the burthen of them, and who know that thpv
themselves must sufferdn their pockets and inters" , if di^fe «S
nstituents unnecessarily and unwisely. In defiance of all this the mode -
adopted by the Statute of Elizabeth* raise a sum of money upon the
peop e, gives the power of imposition to those who have next to no in!
fp^^l 111 the SUm th/‘^ lmpOSGy who are not in a situation of life, likely to
feel the pressure of it, and who cannot be called the representatives If
the body they are appointed to tax; I say, that this deviation from the
sound principles of policy, and of the Constitution, has created most of
The Statute of Elizabeth did not designate the persons who were to
be relieved, except by generally describing them to be poor persons
’ an m8 111 need of relief; it did not lay down any mode in which the
i loney was to be administered, except by empowering the Overseers to
3uy articles for the Poor to work up! A subUquent°Statute rented
he Law of Settlement, if that can he said to be regulated by the°Le£ris
atui e, w Inch has required innumerable legal decisions, in order to expound
the I
Mr. ADAM’s SPEECH.
7
e Legislative regulation. The Statute of Elizabeth was equally vague, and
ft matters equally loose and undecided as the Statute concerning Settle-
ents; so that the laws respecting the Poor have this most extraordinary
ature of imperfection attached to them, that instead of being clear and in-
lligible, requiring little or no litigation to ascertain them. They have fur-
ishedmatter of decision for the Court of King’s Bench, the abridgment of
hich extends to above two thousand pages, and contains considerably
Lore than one thousand three hundred decided cases, and new cases are
aily arising there, besides the numberless questions decided at Quarter
essions, in the different counties of England and Wales. So that what
tould be distributed in charity, is wasted in litigation ; and the Rates
re infinitely increased, not for the benefit of the Poor, but to pay for
le Law-suits of Overseers and Churchwardens.
Mr. Justice Blackstone in his Commentary, says, “ The two great ob¬
jects of this Statute seem to have been, first, to relieve the impotent
Poor, and them only. The second object of the Statute of Elizabeth,
was to find employment for such as are able to work ; and this prin¬
cipally, by providing stocks of raw materials to be worked up at their
separate houses, instead of accumulating all the Poor in one common
Workhouse, a practice, which puts the sober and diligent upon a level (in
point of their earnings) with those who are dissolute and idle, depresses
the laudable emulation of domestic industry and neatness, and destroys
all endearing family connections, the only felicity of the indigent ;
: whereas, if none were relieved, but those who are incapable to get their
I livings, and that in proportion to their incapacities ; if no children were
removed from their parents, but such as are brought up in rags and
idleness, and if every poor man and his family were regularly furnished
with employment, and allowed the whole profits of their labour, a
spirit of buzy cheerfulness would soon diffuse itself through every cot¬
tage; work would become easy and habitual, when absolutely neces¬
sary for daily subsistence, and the peasant would go through his task
without a murmur, if assured, that he and his children (when inca
pable of work through infancy, age, or infirmity) would then, and then
only, be entitled to support from his opulent neighbours.”
It is impossible for words to be more apposite to a subject than the
ords of this Commentary, published above forty years ago, are to the
reamble of this Bill ; one would have thought, that instead of writing
ind publishing them forty years back, Mr. Justice Blackstone had read
le preamble of this Bill, that he had considered this particular clause
ispecting the Workhouse, and that he had aimed his eloquence and his
hilosophy, at the connection and prevention of the measure now under
(onsideration ; for he has described all the evils that will arise from such
n erection as is here proposed ; he has described all the good conse-
uences arising from the contrary system; he has laid down the principles
lat distinguish between the care and affection that belongs to the parent
i the education of the child, and that carelessness which takes place on
le part of those who are set over them without any affection to excite their
ttention and care. He has stated it in a manner to do equal honour to his
jhilanthropy ; his foresight, penetration and judgment pointing out with
loquence and truth, the domestic comforts of the cottage, deprecating
[ • " • ' ' the
8
Me. ADAM’s SPEECH.
the consequences of withdrawing children from the protection of their
pnients, reprobating the idleness and immorality that flows from the
VV ork house system.
But in addition to this, it is quite evident, that both in the manner
of administering parochial relief, in the character of the administrators
and m the mode of levying the Rates, the Statute of Elizabeth has been
fundamentally erroneous, i he object of the subsequent alterations have
been to correct those errors ; whereas the object ought to have been to
establish anew system free from those defects, and founded upon prin¬
ciples, by which you cannot fail to insure to the Poor the greatest bles¬
sing that man can bestow on man. If any one were to ask. What is the
highest good, the most beneficial charity, that can be bestowed on an in¬
digent and impoverished fellow creature? the answer must be, that it is
o promote Ins industry ; that he who furnishes the means and creates
the habits of enabling his fellow creature to support himself by labour
and industry, administers to him true and solid happiness; and he who
takes away the incitements to industry, generates the greatest of all human
misery, if then the tendency of the Poor Laws has been to beget idle¬
ness, sloth, and all their evil consequences, I humbly submit to the
Douse, (hat they must take care how, in this instance/ they add to the,
misery that has grown up with this unfortunate system, by passing this Bill
am well aware that we may be told, that the Workhouse system is
not the particular creature of the statute of Elizabeth. I know that it
remamhd for the statute of the first year of George I. *> enact the law
for erecting and regulating Workhouses. The administration of the
tunc, tor the poor being committed to the parish officers, by the act of
Elizabeth they, for their own ease, as well as from ignorance of the
subject, thought it would be a relief to them to have the poor collected
m VY orkhouses 1 lie primary object of the Workhouse system, therefore,
■was to relieve the administrators of the fund from trouble, not to <>ive
relief to the indigent and incapable. Such a system must have a direct
tendency to encourage every species of profligacy, in either sex, and in
t \civ age. \\ lien females are sent to the Workhouse, they are left with-
out any guard or protection to their virtue ; so that prostitution is the
necessary and inevitable consequence. When children are sent there
t icy are sent from their parents, and put into the hands of those who
know nothing of them, who can have no natural affection for them. We
all know, tnat if the anxiety to protect infancy is not kept up by parental
tenderness and affection, it soon abates; the consequence is, that their
health, their education, and their morals, are all equally neglected In
those seminaries of vice and indolence, the youth are nursed in idleness : '
the moral character of those, who are more advanced in years, suffer
equally from the manner in which the relief is administered. " It is admi¬
nistered in two ways : either by giving money, which is alms, or by giving
them materials to work up. W ith regard to ‘the first of these, the conse¬
quence is too manifest to require illustration ; the receipt of pure alms
necessarily generates idleness and meanness. It puts an end at once to
a . elevation and independence of mind, and totally extinguishes the
spirit of honest industry. With regard to the second, wheif the profit
of labour is not for the personal benefit of the labourer, but is to go t q
some
Mr. ADAM’s SPEECH.
9
some general and public fund, the industry is weak and ineffectual, and
the slackness with which the work is performed, begets habits of the
most prejudicial idleness. By thus compelling the rich to be benevolent,
according to a rule of law, the poor have a direct encouragement to idle¬
ness : labour, in the hands of the individual who is to labour for him¬
self, is his true employment; it makes him happy; it enables him to
bring up his family in the habits of labour; but, where he is to labour
for another — where there is no interest in that labour — where the produce
is not to tell for himself, but for some general fund, he has no en¬
couragement to industry: such a system, therefore, is the most injurious
that can exist, and is only one step better, but not a material step better,
than that of giving alms in actual money.
There is a most remarkable feature in this system, which the Le¬
gislature has adopted respecting the poor. It is contrary to one of
;he fundamental and most important maxims of municipal juris-
midence. The Legislature has attempted to enforce, as matter of
egal obligation, what ought to be left to voluntary benevolence; it
nakes the imperfect obligations , (as they are called by the writers on
[he law of nature,) the subject of positive enactment. I ask, then, if
t be wise, to force this system farther? Will it be wise in the parish
>f Saint James, to adopt a system, which has proved impolitic and mis¬
chievous in every other case? — Let us look to any of the establish-
nents which have been made from the reign of George I. downward *
et us consider those that have been erected under Mr. Gilbert’s Act ; and
hose established by particular Acts of Parliament: such as the House of
rndustry at Hampstead, and many others. It will be found, that the
Vorkhouse system, established under the name of Houses of Industry
Lave a general tendency to diminish industry, and to ruin morals. The
louse of Industry may, for a time, avoid the character of the Work¬
house; but, when the novelty, and with it the energy of superintendance
bates, and, from the nature of things, it must abate, the House of In-
ustry assumes the character of the Workhouse; and, like the Work-
ouse, becomes a mere nickname. — The institution of either would be
nnecessary, were it not for the Law of Settlement, which obstructs the
ree circulation of labour. In countries where the Law of Settlement
oes not exist there are no such establishments. Establishments, which
ave a direct tendency, to corrupt the morals of the people, and to
ender it more difficult to get rid of that worst of mischiefs belongin'*
d the system, the Law of Settlement. I ask the House, then, how it is
ossible to expect from the parish of Saint James, in the management of
lis proposed Workhouse, on which so lavish a sum is to be expended in
le first instance, a different effect from those Workhouses which were
stablished near a centurv ago? I say, there is no ground or foundation
[>r it. 1 here is not any thing in the character of the administrators of
le funds; there is not any thing in the mode of collection; there is not
nv thing in the mode of distribution, that can render this establishment
:ss obnoxious in the parish of St, James, than it is in other places. The
ime causes will continue to produce the same effects. Want of interest
i the work will beget negligence ; negligence will produce idleness ;
ul idleness will beget immorality. The monev proposed to be expended
B x x. ^
will
10
Mr. ABAM’s SPEECH.
will be worse than lavished; it. will be applied in a most injurious and
destructive establishment: and, I trust, the House will never forget,
that, in the commencement of it, this measure is to be attended with
actual impositions upon the parish ot St. James, to an immense amount.
Fifty thousand pounds in land and buildings, and useless works, before
one rag can be put upon the backs of the poor, and before a spoonful
of meat can be put into their mouths ; in addition to the sums of 5000/.
and 15,000/. already expended by the parish; in addition to the sum
annually raised as a poor rate, amounting to 21,000/. yearly, being 4s. e tried: that is to sav, the country should be put in the way of adopt-
ng measures of that sort. I know they have been adopted to a certain
ixtent ; but they must become general, and they must annihilate the
Workhouse system. It cannot be expected that a poor man will save
i shilling from the alehouse, and apply it to the benefit fund once a
nonth, if he knows that his family is to be taken care of, although he
should drink it in ale or spirits. We know that that class of people
require to be made virtuous, by operating upon their hopes and fears;
md regulations calculated to produce such effect, will secure the virtue!
iff that respectable class of people, the peasantry of England.
I could state various facts to prove, that where no poor rate has
existed, there has of course been no poor; because where there is no
poor rate, there is no bounty for any man to become poor ; there is no
encouragement to the poor to be idle. In a parish in Wales, the residence
;)f a late eminent Counsel, the Poor Laws had never been executed. A
^reat Antiquarian, a learned person, who thought laws were made to b§
enforced, was appointed to he the judge ot the district. When he heard
that they had no poor rate, he asked with great indignation if they knew
any thing of the Statute of Elizabeth. They said they had never heard
of it, and found no occasion for it; that they had no poor hut what they
could support. But the zeal of the learned Judge was not to be m
quieted ; he insisted that the Act should be enforced, and that the poor
rate should be raised. This was done, and instead of having their poof
maintained according to their former plan, they had recourse to the
Statute of Elizabeth. The consequence was, that in a few years the
expence of maintaining the poor rose from about 80/. a year to 800/. and
upwards, and it is probably much more now. Another and most im=*
portant elucidation of this doctrine is to be derived from what takes place
in the parish of Clapham, in the vicinity of this metropolis, in which &
considerable proportion of the inhabitants is not entitled to parish relief*
as not having a right of settlement in it. These non-parishioners were
uniformly found to be the most industrious and the least dependent on
parochial relief. This fact was stated to this House by a respectable and
learned Member, some years ago, in a debate concerning the poor.
To remove the necessity of relief every man must be made to depend oa
his own industry, all encouragement to vice and idleness must be with¬
drawn. I cannot therefore help entreating you to keep in view, that the ob«
ject of this Bill is for the encouragement of the Workhouse system ; that it
is a Bill for the abrogation of domestic comfort; that it is a Biii to entail on
this parish a debt of 45,000/. in addition to 20,000/. already existing, and
16
Mr. ADAM’s SPEECH.
that it must increase heavily, the annual poor rates, which already amount
to 21,000/. a year. If the Bill is rejected, and the rejection is followed by
a deliberate investigation of this great question, in a manner suited to it’s
importance and magnitude, the best effects must follow. Industry, the
best gift of Heaven, will be extended, with all it’s blessings, to render
thousands happy, who are now slothful, debased and miserable. By their
industry an immense stock will be added to the general wealth of the
country ; and the blessings of domestic virtue will be rendered secure
and permanent, on which above every thing the prosperity of a country
and the happiness of a people depend.
The Bill , after some debate, was rejected without a division .
\
/
\
.1
r:t
APPENDIX.
17
APPENDIX. No. I.
EXTRACT from an Account of the Management of the
Poor at Hamburgh . By the Bishop of Durham.
Xn the beginning of the year 1788 an institution was formed for the Poor at Ham
burgh. Of 110,000* inhabitants in Hamburgh, there were above 7000 distressed
persons in want of regular relief, besides an average of 2500 in the hospitals. There
were peculiar circumstances attending this great and commercial City, which contri¬
buted to increase the number of Poor, requiring assistance; severe winters, heavy
taxes on the necessaries of life, fluctuation of trade, the attraction of the Poor from
neighbouring countries in expectation of employment; and a great number of
female servants at very low wages, of whom many must necessarily remain unpro¬
vided for, when age or sickness, should unfit them for active service.
As soon as the outline of the plan was agreed upon, an arrangement was formed,
that such revenues as till then had been expended in Alms by the several Church¬
wardens, and those, the administration whereof, had been connected with the Work-
house, should be united under one administration, with the monies to be collected
from private benevolence. The most respectable inhabitants went round personally
to collect Subscriptions; and the town was divided into Sixty Districts, each being
allotted to the care of three Overseers ; and the whole being under the direction of a
Board, or committee of fifteen Directors, elected from among the Overseers.
The general object was to provide comfort and subsistence for the aged, and for
those afflicted with incurable disease, or labouring under temporary sickness; to
supply the means of occupation for those who could work ; and, by giving education
and employment to children, to afford the most beneficial relief to those burthened
with large families.
For the reception of the Aged, a public building or assylum, was provided ; but
n cases, where they had friends, who would receive them, they were allowed as
much as their expence in the Assylum would have amounted to. For the Sick, and
particularly for Women at a period when they have the greatest need of charitable
-elief, medical assistance was provided. For the different Districts in the town, there
vere appointed five Physicians, five Surgeons, and five Mid- wives, who upon notice,
vere to attend the lodging of the patient, if not capable of going abroad. Food and
medicine were immediately supplied, with so much attention and economy, that in
the course of the three first years, 12,969 poor persons had been attended in sickness,
vhose cure ( including broth and an occasional supply of other food) had not cost
nore upon an average than 3s. 6d. each.
For a provision for the Children of the Poor, where, from the vice or the disease
>f the parent, no suitable home remained for the Child, they boarded them in the
* This Account is extracted from an excellent Publication on the subject by Mr. Voght, pub-
:shea in 1796, by Kay, No. 332, Strand; and from the twenty-third Report" of the Directors
ublished in German, at Hamburgh, in January, in 1798. The first is earnestly recommended to the
ttentionof those, who interest themselves in the welfare of the Poor : the latter, it is hoped, the So-
iety will be able to get translated, and published lor the perusal of the English reader.
houfes
APPENDIX.
IB
houses of the better sort of the Poor. In other cases they allow the mother f a weekly
8um for the younger Children. They also prepared a warm room in every Parish,
and bread, milk, and potatoes, in plenty; so that parents, who went out to work,
might leave their young children there during the day, and thus prevent any obstacle
to their own industry, or to that of their elder children. At the same time, they came
to a determination, <( That no family should be allowed any relief for any Child
above six years of age ; but that such Child being sent to school + , should receive
“ not only payment for its work, but also an allowance in the compound ratio of
f the rest, while the mother was gone to Woodbridge ; and, by degrees, as they
*rew up, the children went into the service of the neighbouring farmers.
The widow at length came and informed me, that all her children, except the
^wo youngest, were able to get their own living ; and that she had taken up the em¬
ployment of a nurse; which was a less laborious situation, and at the same time
vould enable her to provide for the two remaining children, who, indeed, could
low almost maintain themselves. She, therefore, gave up the land, expressing
Treat gratitude for the enjoyment of it, which had afforded her the means of sup¬
porting her family, under a calamity, which must otherwise have driven both her
ind her children into a Workhouse.
OBSERVATIONS.
This is an extraordinary instance of what maternal affection, assisted by a little
kindness and affection, will do. To separate the children of the poor from their
parents, is equally impolitic * and unkind. It destroys, the energy of the parent,
pnd the encouragement and principles ol the child. Man is a creature of wants. From
them are derived all our exertions. On the necessity of the infant is founded the
affection of the mother; and, among the poor, (I except those cases where parental
affection may be chilled and enfeebled by extreme depression of circumstances) — but
generally among the poor, where that necessity exists in the greatest force, natural
affection is the strongest. Among the rich, children are too frequently the subject
either of pride, or of penitence.
The supplying of Cottagers with Cows, and with the Means of feeding them,
will tend to diminish the calls for parochial relief ; and to render unnecessary that
barbarous system, of removing the child from its natural and most affectionate
guardians. The year's rent remitted, and the land confided to this poor widow, not
onlv enabled her to support and educate her children at home, but was the means of
saving the parish a very considerable expence; as the reception and feeding and
•clothing of the seven youngest children, at an expence of hardly less than seventy
pounds a year, would probably have been followed by nearly an equal expence with
the widow and the other children. Besides this, the encouragement of industry and
good management among the poor in their cottages, and assisting them in their en¬
deavours to thrive, will contribute to the increase of a hardy and industrious race
I of people, and will afford a supply to our markets of eggs, butter, poultry, pigs,
garden stuff, and almost every article of life; tending to iower^ the price of provi¬
sions, to prevent monopoly, to enrich the country, and to make it powerful ooth
in people and produce, to a degree beyond all calculation.
r . . r : \ n f , ■* j • , * < * » > . .
I • • * ' * * » . f. I ' ' i J * / j J | ... « • ; f * J l t A. A * • •: w* 1 < • • . €» . 1 » v* i . . ; . *
‘ extract
appendix.
€4
.#
EXTRACT from the Report of the Establishment at
Hamburgh in 1 799-
The following Paper is extracted from a late Publication at Hamburgh. It is
submitted to consideration, how far the detail of Hamburgh in 1789, is descriptive of
the present situation of London ; and whether it might not be desirable, that the
Hamburgh Account 0^1799, should be applicable to an improved State of our own
Metropolis.
Comparative State of Hamburgh in the Years 1 7 89, and 1799*
1 7#9.
x. The streets covered with beggars;
many of them strangers, all in great dis¬
tress; the modest and deserving perishing
unheard, and unknown, for want of a share
in that relief, which the street beggar anti¬
cipated by fraud and importunity. 446
persons in the house of correction, besides
prisoners.
2. It appeared upon enquiry, that besides
street beggars, there were many poor per¬
sons, without bedding or clothes, perish¬
ing wretchedly and unknown; objects who
were ashamed to make their appearance in
the day time, on account 'of the want of
decent apparel.
3. There were not less than 600 persons,
without bed or bedding ; and 2000 without
linen ; all of them dirty, ragged, and de¬
void of all domestic comfort.
4. Not less than 2,200 poor neglected
children, covered with rags and vermin ;
many of them from infancy, taught by their
parents to beg and steal, and growing up
in vice and infamy.
5. The distresses, and the conduct of the
Poor were almost unknown, except to a
few clerical and medical men. When the
Directors and Inspectors made their first
enquiries, they visited some narrow courts
inhabited entirely by beggars, lost to soci¬
ety, and scarcely preserving their human
form ; courts which benevolence approach¬
ed with a degree of alarm and horror.
;> . • I
6. With a very few exceptions, the poor
man who was prevented by sickness from
working at his trade, or afflicted,. by Jong
and severe illness in his family, was there¬
by irretrievably ruined. His alternative
was to apply to an ignorant empirick, to the
destruction of his health; or, if he called
in regular medical assistance, he was in
* Sec the Society’s Report, No. 3 ; fee also
No, 4.
1 7.0.9.
1. Scarcely a beggar to be seen : every
necessitous inhabitant receiving under kind
and regular care and inspection, sure and
beneficial relief. In ten years 308; poor
strangers relieved, and returned to their
places of habitation. Not more, in the
whole, than 147 persons in the house of
correction.
2. It is known to all the poor inhabi¬
tants, that if they apply, to the Inspector of
their District, they will receive immediate
! temporary relief; and that the necessary
enquiries will forthwith be made as to their
situation, and the means of assuring to
them regular support.
3. No poor person without proper cloath-
ing; none who may not have linen and a
bed. If they are not able to earn them by
labour, they receive them as a gift.
4. In the preceding ten years, 2,699
children educated in the Schools of Indus¬
try ; and 4,3 33 received, since 1793 into
the other Schools, of these, 538 Children
have been apprenticed.
5. There are now x8o Inspectors, five
Physicians, and five Surgeons, who regu¬
larly visit every part of Hamburgh. Each
house is numbered, and there are 2,20c?
poor persons employed to bring the Inspec¬
tors immediate information of any distress,
or disorder in the city. Thus are misery
and vice diminished among the poor; and
virtue and patriotism increased among the
rich.
6. Those who are too poor Xq pay for
mecfical assistance, may have it of the esta¬
blishment, together with pecuniary relief,
until they can resume their work During
a period of ten years, 36,803 sick persons
have been thus relieved ; of whom, 30,978
have been recovered, and restored to the
community. The mortality among the
Note in the Report, No. 32; and the Appendix.
APPENDIX.
es
consequence obliged to dispose of his fur¬
niture and implements of labour, to the
ruin of his family.
7. A poor family consisting of more than
two children, found it impossible to pro¬
cure subsistence merely by the labour of
the father, and the mother being without
occupation, the children, however well
disposed their parents might be, were in¬
evitably reduced to hopeless beggary.
8. The artizan, who for want of employ¬
ment or of a sale of his work., was behind
hand, found himself compelled to pawn
his tools, and by extreme indigence, was
Frequently reduced to a wretched state of
inactivity; in consequence of which,
though possessed ot strength and skill to
abour, he became a hopeless and helpless
peggar.
9. No establishment for the preservation
:>f natural children, and for the restoration '
Df their unfortunate and penitent mothers
;o the pathsmf virtue and industry.
10. There were 7,391 Paupers, (4,087
omen, 1,079 Men, and 2,225 Children)
Desides persons in Hospitals. Mendicity,
■ preading like infection, and paralysing the
industry and energy of the Poor, Was he¬
roine an epidemic disease among the lower
[lasses of life.'.T
sick, in the early part of the preceding ten
years, was about eight in the hundred ; it
now bears only half that proportion.
7*« A large family became, in 1792, an
advantage to the honest and industrious.
Idle parents receive an allowance for any
child too young to attend the schools ;
where the other children are instructed,
clothed, and fed ; and have some surplus
of their earnings to carry home to their
Parents.
8. Since 1795, a Committee has met re¬
gularly every Saturday to discharge debts,
redeem pawns, purchase materials and
tools, or advance loans for distressed ar -/
tizans, who can shew that their distress is
notjaccasioned by vice or idleness. In four
years, 940 families have been so relieved,
and nearly one third of the money so em¬
ployed, has been already repaid.
9. A Foundling Hospital was opened in
1795 ; in which 138 Children have been
already preserved, and 153 Mothers main¬
tained till they could be placed in service.
10. There are at present 3090 Paupers,
fed and clothed, and obliged to do such
work as they are capable of. Of these
1592 are aged persons from 60 to 100 years
of age ; 1097 maimed or diseased persons of
middle age; and 401 Children, the greater
part of whom are very young.
4
General Numerical Statement .
In
In
*oor above Childhood . • • . . . . .
*oor Children «•»••« . . . . . . . . . . .
Receiving Relief. • • •
n the House of Correction . . * .
n the Sick Hospital . . . .
n the Orphan Hospital about* . . . . . . .
Total
r \
■ t
Reduction in the Number of Paupers
1789
1799
5166 2689
2225 401
739 1
44 6
920
1000
3090
H 7
894
60a
9757
47 3 1
\
5026
If from 5026 be subtracted the Persons receiving relief, the average number of
hich, is 237, and Children merely receiving education, which may be set at
D54, still there will remain a saving to the Community of Tbte thousand seven
\ndred and thirty Jive Persons .
22 d March 1800.
D
An
23
APPENDIX.
V -1
An EXTRACT from an Account of the Management of the
Poor in Hamburgh since the Year 1788, in a Bette) to some
Friends of the Poor in Great Britain, by C. Voght, Esq.
6th Nov. I , ^ . r. v
Our expences, at the end of three years, amounted to ^ ~ 44>o85
It had been annually increasing ; private chanty ceasing, all
poor at last had recourse to the means offered them: from a cor¬
rupted race, however, little good eoutd be expected; and, what
education we had been able to give, could not yet have any sensible
effect. It was still the time of struggle ; but the public, who always
knew perfectly all circumstances, supported. us, chearfully, notwith¬
standing the receipt of
O 9
4!»596
in three years (vid. tab.) fell short of our expenditure by the
_ — of. 4^9 ® ®
Desirous, on our side, to save for the public what we possibly could, we sub- .
iected again all our expences to a new scrutiny, of which the result is contained m the
fourteenth Report. It seemed that the Overseers had slackened a ottle in attending
to the work of the poor The Committee for the Manufactures had round, that, in
i 70 i but half the usual quantity of yarn had been spun ; yet the allowances had rather
been increased, without an augmentation of the poor. The rules were anew en¬
forced in the beginning of summer, as the most proper season; and at the approach
of winter, all those who needed assistance from want or work, instead of getting
the usual augmentation from the Overseer, were sent to the Committee, who either
rave them work, or procured them employment from Tradesmen and Manufacturers,
with whom they had connected themselves for that purpose. This was, in some re¬
spects, expensive; but became a very great saving, as it fold the effect, that out of
2~6 poor, who applied fdr an^mentatioiYof alio wance from want of work, only
forty accepted of the work offered them. During that year 3,000^ bundles of yarn
more were spun; 300 children more went to school; and the institution saved
£uiSOi which would have fallen to the share of idleness, and which is nearly the
amount of the greater earnings of the poor in that year.
I insist upon those facts, because they prove not only the wisdom of a measure
which makes the relief of the poor dependent on their industry, and obliges* them to
a kind of work, the produce of which is the undoubted measure of the exertions
rhev employed, but because they prove also the necessity of enforcing this measure,
daily enfeebled by the cunning, and $e obvious misery of tl he lazy poor, operating
the sensibility pf the Overseers, fl is undoubtedly the most .difficult part of their
dutv to shut their ear< to the cries of misery, and leave those to their fate, who will
not comply with the conditions under which they are to be relieved. v\ e have seen
incredible instances of hardships suffered, rather than go to work, or send their chil¬
dren to school. Ib m single instances, indulgence is shown, where, according to
Kw it ought not, then all is lost: abuse creeps in, and, in a short time, this weekly
allowance becomes a pension, that supersedes the necessity of working; then it
becomes a matter of favour and protection, and the whole a system of corruption ;
worse a thousand times by being so systematized, than if no provision had been made,
' j ;f eyery thing had been trusted to chance, and to the exertions of private bene-
whence' These premiums, held out to vice, mud of course increase the number of
the idle and the profligate: and, what must be the feelings of the honest, industrious
workman, who, with the utmost exertions of his strength, hardly earns the bare
* necessaries
APPENDIX.
£ 1
2essnries of life, when, next to his door, sloth sits in undeserved ease, and reap*'
lere it has not sown ! # ... , ...
It is literally true, that, where no man can perish for want, many will be idle j
d that the natural course of things, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, would
ve forced the wretch to labour, and perhaps secured him comfort, if ritv, like an
skilful Physician, had not stept in, and, by a palliative remedy, prevented the
re. I think, then, that we may safely ascribe thai success I am gbing to show you
the account of the last year, to our steadiness in adhering, to this- fundamental pxm«
ole. It is from the beginning of 1 792, we began to feel its good errect.
In 1703, the number of our poor families was reduced to 3,234, to more than
e-sixth less than what they were at the time of the establishment _ in 1 788 ; the
m of their allowance in money and house rent, to =£9,678, which is «£ 1 ,422 .ess
an the average of the first years* . 1
Yet this difference is so little owing to an increase of mortality among tae poor,
Lit we have, on the contrary, witnessed the most satisfactory effects, not on. y of our
|rlv assistance in sickness, by attention, medicines, and a bettef diet,. but, what i
ink still more, by the cleanliness. and comfort of dress, warmer lodgings, and the
odigiotis influence industrious activity has upon the constitution.
In the' year 1 790-9 1 , the number of new claimants was ••••** * \ a *
In 1792-93, only - M . . V ' * ’ * . 119 ~
The reduction of this traffic oi beggary, as soon as it was known, was so profit-
&le to our city, that, in the year 1792, only 126 vagrants were sent oui with a
iaticum ; when the number, in 179*9 been 272.
Not only the number of siek among our poor had decreased from 3,7 suc-
issively to 2,672, in 1793, but the mortality among the sick had diminished m
tat surprizing proportion.
/ - In 1788-89 . * . * . 7 per cent.
1789- 90 . * . . . 6
1 790- 9 . . * . 5
1791- 92 . . *
The private medical institution, that preceded ours, had an average mortality
f 1 1 per cent. May all good and humane men share the heart-felt pleasure with
!hich I relate these facts.
APPENDIX. No. II. -
ACCOUNT of the Poor in Scotland, taken from the State
of the Poor. By Sir F. M. Eden.
Vol. III. Appendix X. P. ccxxvii*
OF the peculiar inconveniences, as well as of the peculiar benefits resulting from
he compulsory provison appointed for the Poor in England, a clear and impartial
ptimate, no doubt, may be formed, from a patient and minute investigation of the'
tirious modifications which have taken place in this national Establishment; from a
eview of the manners and morals of the labouring part of the Community ; and fjom
due appreciation of the local advantages and disadvantages, by which different
arts of the Kingdom are affected much additional light, however, on the probvlble
neans of lessening the burthen of those who pay, and of meliorating the conduct of
bose who are supported bv- the -Poor’s Rate, may, I conceive, be obtained hom com-
D 2 ‘ r. '
APPENDIX.
l
paring the English System of Poor Laws, with the method adopted in other Countries^
tor relieving the Indigent, and more especially, from comparing it with the practice
of a Country, which, as it forms a very considerable part of the British Empire, and
has now for near a Century, been governed by British laws, may be supposed to have
more assimilated itself to the customs of the more oppuient, and more populous por-
tions, of the Kingdom ; and consequently to hold out patterns of political economy,
which may be more readily engrafted in the old stock of English policy, than the
codes of foreign nations, whose manners, religion, and government, are in every
respect dissimilar to our own. It is with a view of affording my readers some assist¬
ance towards forming such a comparison, that I am induced to lay before them a short
Account (which is principally collected from the Scottish Acts of Parliament, the
Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, article POOR; Dr. M'Farlane’s Enquiries concerning the
Poor ; and the Statistical Account of Scotland, lately published by Sir John Sinclair)
of the Laws which have been enacted on, this subject, and of the manner in which the
lund s destined for the relief of the Poor are collected, and administered in Scotland.
The principal fund, however, from which parochial charity is administered,
ar.ses from collections made at the church doors, and from donations given at sacra* *•
ment time ( i) : in some parishes, the poor are also assisted from the rent of a part of
tne church, called u the Poor’s Aile (a);” or from the rent of galleries or pews (3);
in others, from fees paid at marriages, baptisms, &c. (4); from dues for mort
cloths (5); or from fees for a hearse, which has been purchased, on their account, by
the Kirk Session, and let for hire (6) ; from compositions for bastards, and small
fines imposed for immoralities (7) ; in most parishes, there is likewise a small fund
ft of mortified money,” the interest of which is appropriated to the relief of the
poor.
The mode in which the collections at the church door are made, is as follows :
Those, who can afford it, leave an offering in a bason, which is placed at the church
door, and is under the immediate care of an Elder, who delivers it to the Session ;
after the service is over, the money is then reckoned up, entered in their book, and
deposited in a box kept for that purpose, which has generally a small slit at top,
through which the benevolent can drop their ct/ntributions: there are usually two
keys to it, one of which is kept by the Kirk Treasurer, and the other by , the Mi.
nister(8). d hose parishes, in which poor’s rates are paid, they are neitherVuniform
nor permanent, ncr made in conformity to any established law of the country.
1 he usual mode, however, of proceeding, when assessment is proposed, is thus de¬
scribed by Dr. Thomas Somerville, in the Statistical Account of the parish, of Jed¬
burgh. — “ 1 he Minister intimates from the pulpit, that, on such a day, the meeting
of the Heritors and Elders is to be held, for the purpose of making a provision for
the poor, for the ensuing quarter; these meetings generally take plate near the terms
of Candlemas, Whit Sunday, Lammas, and Martinmas. Upon the day of meeting,
the Heritors elect a Prees; after which, the minutes vt the former sederunt, and the
* Of the mode adoptea for relieving the Poor in Ireland, we have the following short account
by Dr Gisborne, “ We have no Poor Laws in this country; every Sunday a collection is -made from
“ the whole congregation, as with you, ' in England) for communicants, and the money $s given to a
4 l ist of the Poor agreed upon by the Minister and . hurch wardens. These Poor are Parishioners of
“ the establishment. I he number of our rich absentees must greatly le.ssea public and private con-
*• tributions for the Poor ; in particular cases, every clergyman recommends and the rich giVe, in pro-
“ portion to the distress, without regard to the religious denominations.” Gisborne’s Enquiry into
the Duties of Men iri the higher and middle classes of Society. Third edit ii 106.— -Dr. Wood¬
ard, the late Bishop of Cloyne, in a Pamphlet, intituled, “ An Address to the Public on the Ex¬
pediency of a regular Plan for the Maintenance and Government of the Poor,” recomihended to
the establisment of a ■ oor s Rate, without success. A few years ago, a House of Industry was esta¬
blished in Dublin, concerning the economy of which, the reader will find some details in Count
Rumford’s Essays, i. 458.
roll
APPENDIX.
29
'oil of the poor, are read by the clerk ; forming a calculation from the number al-
'eady standing upon the roll, and the applications made to them ; the Heritors assess
hemselves in a certain sum, to be collected from them severally, according to the
proportion of their valued rents, the proprietor pays one half of the assessment and
he tenant the other. Though the tenants are not mentioned in the summons, yet
:uch of them, as choose to attend, are made welcome, and their advice and infor¬
mation listened to by the meeting. The sum assessed is raised by the Heritors and
£irk Session together, in such proportions as seem adequate to the necessities of the
poor ; such persons, as are, reduced to the necessity of applying to the Heritors for
charity, from any accidental and transient cause, such as disease or misfortune, re¬
ceive what is called an interim supply, i. e. a certain sum for that quarter only: the
iged and infirm, and such as are likely to continue under the same necessity of de¬
pending upon public charity, are taken upon the poor’s roll at a certain weekly al-
owance. The persons taken upon the roll are obliged to subscribe a bond, or deed
>f conveyance ( i ), making over and bequeathing all their effects to the Heritors ;
md though the Heritors seldom exact their effects, yet the subscription of the bond
erves as a check to prevent persons, who may be possessed of concealed property,
fom alienating the public charity; the sum assessed is levied by a collector, ap¬
pointed by the Heritors, and distributed by him to persons admitted upon the roll,
.ccording to the proportions allotted to them (2).
ic A Kirk Session, by which the greater part of the poor in Scotland is relieved,
s somewhat similar to our English Vestry, i. e. when regularly constituted, it must
ilways consist of the Minister, Elders, (3), Sessions-Clerk, and Kirk-Treasurer.
Slone of these ever receive any sanary, except the Treasurer and the Session-Clerk,
vho is usually the schoolmaster of the parish, and has a small salary allowed for mi¬
nting the transactions. The Kirk-Treasurer is, for the most part, one of the
aiders; and he is an important member of this Court : without his intervention, no
listribution of the poor’s funds is deemed legal, nor can any payments be made, re-
teipts granted, or money transferred, but by him; the Minister and Seffion being
>ersonally liable to make good all money that may otherwise be given away, should
t ever afterwards be challenged by any heritor in the parish.
“ No money can be legally issued from the poor’s funds, even by the Treasurer
nd Session, unless legal proof can be brought, that public intimation'has been given
rom the pulpit, immediately after divine service, and before the congregation has
ispersed, that a distribution of the poor’s money is to be made by the Session, at
,ich a time and place, specifying the same, and inviting all, who have interest in the
ise, to attend, if they shall incline. This intimation must be made a full fortnight
efore the. time of distribution ; and, as every Heritor, (owner of landed property)
1 the parish, has a right to vote in the distribution of the poor’s funds, they may all,
r they so incline, attend and exercise that righr. But, if none of them, which is
iten the case, the Session has then a right to proceed ; and, whatever they
lall thus do, is deemed strictly legal, and is liable to no other challenge. But,
^oula they proceed without having given this previous intimation, they may, if
le Heritors should afterwards challenge, be made to repay, out of their own
bekets, every shilling they shall have so issued. It sometimes happens, that young
ministers, through heedlessness, in this respect, expose themselves and families to
Dnsiderable trouble and loss, which, by attention, might be easily avoided. In the
ime way, should a Minister or Session, without the intervention of a Treasurer,
gularly constituted, lend upon bond, or otherwise, any of the poor’s funds, and*
lould the person so borrowing afterwards fail, these lenders are personally liable
make good the whole; and any Heritor in the parish, who chuses it, can comoel
m to do so (2). The members of the Session are also liable to pay all losses, and
account for all sums that it can be proved they received, if they do not keep re-
ular accounts, or if their books are not revised and approved by the Presbytery
In assembly which consists of all the Pastors belonging to a certain district, and an
* t ^
APPENDIX.
35
Elder from each parish, who is commissioned by his brethren to represent, m con¬
junction with the Minister, the Parish Session) ; the Presbytery are the legal auditors
Jnf the poor’s accounts in every parish within its bounds ; m cases^ of difficulty, they
may apply to the Provincial Synod, which consists of Ministers ana Elders, delegated
fl0mThe expence of maintaining the poor in Scotland, is certainly very inconsider¬
able in comparison with what is expended in maintaining an equal number of poor
in the sister kingdom. With the exception of small salaries of i/.ors/. which, m
lome pins of ^ country, are allowed to the Session Clerk and the Treasurer ; the
whok business of collecting, superintending, and distributing charity to ttheladi-,
cent is managed by the Elders, without a farthing expence (i ) : which, {it is justly
observed, is “ an instance of frugality in an extensive and public .management, not
paralleled in Europe, and exhibiting at once, in these days of venality, a striking an
singular example of public- spirit and Christianity. tms. useful body of men, now-
evcr it is said, is on the decline, as to number, in the western parts o, Scotland.
Few' people chose to accept an office, which not only has not the smallest emolument
annexed to it, but, as far as it is connected with the management o. the poor, is a
troublesome and thankless business (-)• .
The plan of supporting the poor, by weekly collections at the church doers,
under the management of the Minister and Elders of every parish, has produced
such salutary effects, that it deserves the highest commendation. No set of men are
better acquainted with the situation and character of the poor than they iney,
therefore can judge exactly, both what supplies they may need, and how they may
, be Hiven them,3 with the iost advantage. The, author of the Statistical account
of Paisley who thus expresses his approbation of the Scotch plan of relieving the
poor, justify reprobates the mode which has of late years been adopted m many
parishes, of supporting them by a discretionary tax- upon the inhabitants, under
The management of Overseers. It may, perhaps, be objected, that the system of
assisting the indigent, by contributions collected, from the pious at the church
doors might accord very well with the primaeval simplicity of the first ages ..of the
church; but, in the changes which have taken place in the circumstances of society*
it must necessarily prove extremely inadequate to answer the pressing and multifarious
calls of poverty, which are the never failing concomitants of a crowded population
*nd "fhatftfiis,tehowever/ is far from being the case, is evident from the.yery easy
manner in which the town above-mentioned supports its poor. Paisley is wholly a
manufacturing town; and, from the change of fashion, which has taken p, ace since
the year 1781° has experienced a considerable declension in its chief branch of in¬
dustry, the fabrication of silk gauzes: a declension, which, in England.,, would nave
loaded the poof’s rates, for many years, with an increased burthen. Tha.town of
Paisley however, proceeded on the old plan of maintaining its poor by collection!
It the church doors, and, it is said, has exhibited a proof of the excellence of thas
method •Although its population in 1791, amounted to 1 j, 800 inhabitants , (1.) ie
number of occasional and regular Poo/during that and the preceding year, was only
„ .q besides 12 children sent to nurse# and 25 to school, and the whole annual exper.c
of maintains them was only £ 50,. .as. i±d. U-) Indeed if seems a very generaj
remark tha? in those parishes in which an assesment is laid upon the heritors, and
their f tenants, in order to supply the deficiency of the parochial funds ; the Poor are
*h less scrupulous in applying for parish support, more importunate m their de¬
mands, and less thankful for relief, than in those parishes where they are supplied
from the Parish fund, under the controul and superintendance of the minister an
eiders In the parish of Carlaverock, which possesses a considerable fund of mor-
tified money” for the relief of its Poor, it would seem from the account of the in-
cum bent that a fourth part of the sum thus appropriated might be sufficient for all the
purposes 'of real and lawful charity. •• And. indeed, he adds, “ an attentive observe.
APPENDIX.
will reckon it a matter of doubt whether the greatness of the parish funds be pro¬
ductive of most good or evil. The moralist has same cause to complain, that it
dries up the sources of private charity, and renders the poor people less willing to
assist their old and needy relations. These they sometimes seem disposed to aban¬
don to the care of the Session, who cannot, by the small allowance they bestow,
make up to them the want of that tender 'assiduity which proves the cordial of age
and poverty, and which natural affection alone can administer.
“ The farmer, with still greater reason cbmplains, that the idea cf a plentiful
fund established for their support , fils the pcuhh in spite of every effort to
prevent it, with the idle , infirm, and indolent , and renders it difficult for him to
obtain day labourers. In fine, the Poor them selves far from being contented with
their respective proportions of the funds, which aje, notwithstanding, distributed
with great impartiality. They are accustomed. to. lean too much to them, and to
depend too little upon their own exertions; nay, it is said, that a querulous habit
is acquired, and even infirmity feigned in order to excite compassion, and to obtain
a more liberal share of charity. In the opposite scale of good/’ (Mr., Morrise, the
athor of this report remarks,) “ These effects of the funds are to be thrown: first,
the support of convenient schools. Second, that no distress arising from poverty
occurs, which obtains not a present relief, without any e&pence to the inhabitants
of the parish. But though none of the Poor of Cariarverock are under the ne¬
cessity of begging from house to hou§e, the parish is as much as any in this quarter,
pestered with vagrants, and as liberal to them.’’
y. .
APPENDIX - Nos III
CARRON FRIENDL Y SOCIE TT.
\ » \ f
s * I *
EVERY member upon entering this Society, pays five shillings, if under sixteen
||ars of age, if above sixteen years, he pays twelve shillings of entry money.
For the first twelve months he pays one shilling per month ; afterwards, during
e, eight-pence per Month. At the death of 'every member he pays sixpence also,
return he receives five shillings per week for the first twelvemonths sickness, or
ability to follow his profession, and four shillings per week afterwards during his
e, when he may be disabled by sickness or infirmity from pursuing his business.
Seven pounds are paid upon the death of every member to the widow or nearest
‘kin, to ensure a decent burial. Two pounds' sterling are paid upon the death of
ery member’s wife.
This Institution has subsisted for forty years, and is at present in good circum-
tnces. It has been productive of the most beneficial effects.
I • - » A -
Four stewards are annually chosefn, who attend to the health of the members,
id the state of the Funds. In all cases of doubt they may call a Surgeon to assist them
judging of any imposition that may be practised upon the Society.
APPENDIX,
APPENDIX.
52
APPENDIX. No. IV.
Extract of a Letter from the Rector of Clapham,
dated 23d March, 1804.
ABSTRACT from the Accounts of the Parish of Clapham,
taken from a Period of Ten Years.
TOTAL Expence of maintaining the Poor in the Workhouse during
ten years. Number from 34 to 56 . * • . f •£ 4 ,895 10 1
Exepnces incurred on account of the resident Parishioners, including
pensioners, casual relief, cloathing, &c. . 2,57?. 13 5
Expences incurred on account of non-resident Parishioners . 566 11 1
; 8,034 14 7
Expences incurred, during the same period, on account of Non-pa¬
rishioners resident in Clapham, viz.
For Casual Relief £ 103 1 1
Removals •• 68 2 3
- — 1 7 1 3 4
It appeared from a very accurate examination of the resident Poor at the begin¬
ning of the period, that there were.
Parishioners resident in Clapham . 512
Do. do. in the Workhouse . 43
- 555
Non-parishioners resident . . 572
The writer of the above letter observes, that for the purpose of an accurate
comparative statement, between the expence, in this parish, of relief to parishioners
and non-parishioners, it would be necessary, 1st, to know the exa& number of its own
poor resident out of the parish; and 2dly, to know, what sums were furnished to
the resident non-parishoners by their own respective parishes. But the above com¬
parative statement, may for the present purpose, be considered as sufficiently accu¬
rate, since it appears, that this parish paid only in ten years for their non-refident
parishioners, 566/. tu. id. or about 56/. per annum, a sum not sufficient to relieve
five absentees annually at 12/. per annum each; whilft it paid for those in the work-
house, amounting only to between thirty-four and fifty-fix persons, or upon an
average of about forty persons in ten years, 4 895/. 105. 1 d. or 489/. per annum,
being at the rate of about 12 /. per annpm each. And the writer of the letter states,
that he has observed, “ that the non-residents, form in general, the most decent and
“ industrious part of the inhabitants of a parish/’ from which it seems to be a
necessary conclufion, that the relief afforded to non-refident poor from their respective
parishes, must be very moderate, especially, as they would be exposed to removal,
if from want of industry or frugality, they threatened to become burthensome to the
parish where they resided.
■ - ‘ %
appendix.
APPENDIX.
9
33
APPENDIX. No. V.
ctMPF the publication of the full edition, the Board of Agriculture has pun ed
, jSIftNPFA P 1Der wrote by Mr. Eftcourt, Member for Cncklade, g'Vi g an
ind P J;n; eXperiment made by him for bettering the condit on f he
recount of a,n ® P their great advantage, the neceflity and burden of poor
^bftS oftl’paper fori, a proper Appendix to the prefent publication.
ABSTRACT.
The narifh of Long Newton contains 140 poor perfons of all ages, divided into
, T rX employed as labourers in hutbandry. Mr. Eftcourt propped to
y. fami , y J • u, at his option, become tenant of a fmall quantity oi
-heM rttCa fa!rrrntgand under°pPrope; reftriAions, but that no perfon fhould
uao.e land, f ld cultivate without interfering with their ufual
occupy more ithan Are t 7 ^ manure ^ k a ftate of hlgh fertility.
labour, nor ^ haPe an acre and an half, and the others a fmaller
lhat the largeft famt . be ^ ^ acre for ]and, which, to a common
proportion. That the 1 ii;P acre_ xhat one-fourth thou d
farmer, could not be 1 let for more ^ and t e remainder in
? hut fo as that fucceffive exhaufting crops Ihould never be taken. .That
otnei c j-s, fourteen years, but determinable on three years notice by
the = leate Ihould be ^XnJbe forfeited, .ft, If the land be not cultivated
eithe, par >. ^ ad] p f ' t h e tenant be convifted of an offence pumfhable, a:
and manuie Jmnrifonmeht- udly. If the tenant fhould receive any relief frotr
thepoorrates, except medical affiftance, or relief under the militia afts, or fimilar aft.
°f PThisTopofal was eagerly accepted by all except by widows with numerou,
r j uv fnur very old infirm perfqns, without families.
young families, and by yo 10twkhftandiPg the aid which many of them had re
• tfrom the ooor rates were in debt, and chiefly for bread, it was found neceffar
« Idvance fums to them on loan at firft, in proportion to their wants, to the tota
am° Thet entered at Lady-day, .801, to one-third of the land;, to another third .
t At 1 Con and to the remainder at Lady-da^,,
a Vhe'efFed of this arrangement has been, that fince March, .1801, when the
_ _ ^ “ . 1 off* nn relief has been